Musings about personal and planetary healing from an herbalist, poet, and witch.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Vox Clamantis in Deserto

It's Midsummer's Eve and the temperate rainforest I call home has turned hot and dry after months without rain, and I am awake after midnight, weeping at the beauty and power of a papal encyclical.

Two years ago, a month before my initiation as a Feri Priest, I wrote about the intense liberation I felt with the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, which helped to break the chains the Church still had wrapped around my sense of myself in the world.

Now, freed of that relationship, I am able to read the words of his successor, Pope Francis, with new eyes, and recognize a surprising resonance with my own Pagan practice.

"Pagan" and "Heathen" are words that originally referred to the
unchurched and unlettered people of the countryside, and these were the
people Francis of Assisi ministered to -- a ministry marked not by
conversion but by inclusion in an animist form of Christianity, which
saw plants and animals and sun and rain and wind and stars as humanity's
kin. It is telling and significant that the saint's namesake draws
quite explicitly on that original Franciscan language, theology, and
spirit in an encyclical addressed not to Catholics but to the world. The Pope writes:

Francis helps us to see that an integral ecology calls for openness to
categories which transcend the language of mathematics and biology, and
take us to the heart of what it is to be human. Just as happens when we
fall in love with someone, whenever he would gaze at the sun, the moon
or the smallest of animals, he burst into song, drawing all other
creatures into his praise. He communed with all creation, even preaching
to the flowers, inviting them “to praise the Lord, just as if they were
endowed with reason”.
His response to the world around him was so much more than intellectual
appreciation or economic calculus, for to him each and every creature
was a sister united to him by bonds of affection. That is why he felt
called to care for all that exists. His disciple Saint Bonaventure tells
us that, “from a reflection on the primary source of all things, filled
with even more abundant piety, he would call creatures, no matter how
small, by the name of ‘brother’ or ‘sister’”.Such a conviction cannot be written off as naive romanticism, for it
affects the choices which determine our behaviour. If we approach nature
and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no
longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship
with the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers,
ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs. By
contrast, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then
sobriety and care will well up spontaneously.

And, then, comes the really astounding part:

The poverty and austerity of Saint Francis were no mere veneer of
asceticism, but something much more radical: a refusal to turn reality
into an object simply to be used and controlled.

With these words, Pope Francis challenges the cosmology of capitalism, resurrecting a world that was declared dead, and calling for a new politics and a new economics that recognize the inherent worth and rights of all life, human or otherwise.

He goes on to explicitly condemn anthropocentrism -- a complete reversal of Benedict XVI's position that challenges to the concept of a human centered world were inherently heretical. Writing of biodiversity, he says:

It is not enough, however, to think of different species merely as
potential “resources” to be exploited, while overlooking the fact that
they have value in themselves. Each year sees the disappearance of
thousands of plant and animal species which we will never know, which
our children will never see, because they have been lost for ever. The
great majority become extinct for reasons related to human activity.
Because of us, thousands of species will no longer give glory to God by
their very existence, nor convey their message to us. We have no such
right.

It may well disturb us to learn of the extinction of mammals or
birds, since they are more visible. But the good functioning of
ecosystems also requires fungi, algae, worms, insects, reptiles and an
innumerable variety of microorganisms. Some less numerous species,
although generally unseen, nonetheless play a critical role in
maintaining the equilibrium of a particular place. Human beings must
intervene when a geosystem reaches a critical state. But nowadays, such
intervention in nature has become more and more frequent. As a
consequence, serious problems arise, leading to further interventions;
human activity becomes ubiquitous, with all the risks which this
entails. Often a vicious circle results, as human intervention to
resolve a problem further aggravates the situation. For example, many
birds and insects which disappear due to synthetic agrotoxins are
helpful for agriculture: their disappearance will have to be compensated
for by yet other techniques which may well prove harmful. We must be
grateful for the praiseworthy efforts being made by scientists and
engineers dedicated to finding solutions to man-made problems. But a
sober look at our world shows that the degree of human intervention,
often in the service of business interests and consumerism, is actually
making our earth less rich and beautiful, ever more limited and grey,
even as technological advances and consumer goods continue to abound
limitlessly. We seem to think that we can substitute an irreplaceable
and irretrievable beauty with something which we have created ourselves.

What we are witnessing here is a fundamental theological shift -- the Pope is moving the Church's position from a view of a world created by God for human use to a view of a world in which all life is sacred.

He aligns himself and the Church, as well, with Indigenous people, taking the position that they are best caretakers of their traditional homelands, and that they
deserve to be allowed to honor an protect "a sacred space with which
they need to interact if they are to maintain their identity and
values." These words are coming from the leader of a Church which for centuries blessed the extermination, forced conversion, and forced assimilation of Indigenous people. Now, witnessing a world devastated by colonialism and capitalism, the Pope is completely rewriting Church doctrine.

Its appropriate that this comes just weeks after the Vatican beatified Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was killed by U.S.-trained assassins for speaking out on behalf of El Salvador's poor. Like Pope Francis, Romero was a quiet and moderate man who distanced himself from politics -- until he could no longer ignore the suffering around him. Romero said "“There are many things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried” I wonder at the miracle of the tears that have cleared the eyes of Pope Francis.

Pope Francis believes in a single God. Though he also speaks of Mary, beautifully, as the Mother and Queen of the universe:

Mary, the Mother who cared for Jesus, now cares with maternal affection
and pain for this wounded world. Just as her pierced heart mourned the
death of Jesus, so now she grieves for the sufferings of the crucified
poor and for the creatures of this world laid waste by human power.
Completely transfigured, she now lives with Jesus, and all creatures
sing of her fairness. She is the Woman, “clothed in the sun, with the
moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” Carried up into heaven, she is the Mother and Queen of all
creation. In her glorified body, together with the Risen Christ, part of
creation has reached the fullness of its beauty. She treasures the
entire life of Jesus in her heart and now
understands the meaning of all things. Hence, we can ask her to enable
us to look at this world with eyes of wisdom.

My spirituality is rooted not in belief, but in relationships -- and my relationships are with many gods - the Feri gods and the gods of my ancestors - and with plants and animals and rivers and stars.

But that is almost all that separates my view of the world from the view Pope Francis articulates in this encyclical.

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About Me

Sean Donahue is a traditional herbalist and witch. He is a Priest and a keeper of the Green Wand in the BlackHeart Line of the Anderson Feri Tradition of Witchcraft. For Sean, magic, medicine, and poetry are all expressions of a deep connection to the living Earth, and personal, cultural, and ecological healing are inextricably linked.
As a practitioner he looks to plants as allies in helping people remember their own beauty, strength and power and in guiding them to health.
As a teacher, he encourages students to build their own deep, personal relationship with the plants around them grounded in the experience of their own senses and their own hearts.